My Teenage Son Has Breasts!

June 6, 2011 •

My son is 15 and has fatty breasts. He is so self-conscious about this that he doesn’t even want to go outside. Why does he have large breasts and what can be done about it?

This is a pretty interesting question. It sounds like your son has gynecomastia, a condition commonly found in teenage males. What happens with this condition is the glands right under the breasts enlarge and swell, usually right under the nipple (If it’s swollen anywhere else, it may not be gynecomastia). It is usually present on only one side, but can affect both. Another symptom is that it makes the breast(s) tender to the touch. In most cases there is no treatment for it. In 95% of the cases of teenage boys experiencing gynecomastia, it goes away usually completely within a year or two. In rare cases it can be caused by a disease or tumor requiring treatment, but it’s very rare. I would suggest you see your family doctor and have this checked to make sure that is what’s going on, not a more serious underlying problem. Your doctor will also probably want to monitor the size every few months to make sure it is not growing larger. I want to mention, we don’t really talk about men and breast issues that often, but believe it or not, if there’s swelling on an adult male under the nipple, it could be serious, even breast cancer. I know we don’t hear a lot about men developing breast cancer, and it is far, far less common than with women, but it can happen. In fact, the American Cancer Society estimates (are you ready for this?)2000 cases of invasive breast cancer are diagnosed in men each year, killing over 450 men annually.

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